


Mixed Solution

by WizardSandwich



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Cyberverse
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:49:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28524249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WizardSandwich/pseuds/WizardSandwich
Summary: Hot Rod has a problem and Soundwave can't really fix it, but he'll try.My secret solenoid gift for GemmaRose.
Relationships: Hot Rod/Soundwave (Transformers)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 57
Collections: Secret Solenoid '20-'21





	Mixed Solution

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GemmaRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/gifts).



> sorry for the late post but here your secret solenoid gift! hopefully it fits the bill!

Soundwave and Hot Rod are acquaintances on the best of days. Soundwave knows this to be a product of their positions and their differences, but he’s not sure what to think of it. They’d spent a formative experience together—should have come out attached or loathing—and then, well, nothing. But perhaps that’s a bias on Soundwave’s end, when all he sees are bots coming out of the experience changed. Perhaps he _wants_ to be changed—or wants Hot Rod to be.

He thinks that desire is part of the reason he notices Hot Rod so much. During their shared goal, there had been no time to notice him, but after there is plenty of it. And Soundwave notices a lot.

Hot Rod never directly touches anyone. His servos skirt around the edges over bots’ personal space. He fidgets nervously when they get too close. He looks at his friends and comrades with a distinct longing that Soundwave has long come to recognize in the most energon hungry of bots, the kind the reveals starvation and desperation. In short, Hot Rod is starving. For what, Soundwave doesn’t know. But he’s determined to figure it out, especially now with their uneasy peace.

It’s a slow day when Soundwave heads down to the old oil reservoir. Technically speaking, he doesn’t know Hot Rod will be there, but Bumblebee had mentioned it was a possibility to Perceptor. Soundwave just happened to have heard it too.

“Hello, Soundwave,” Hot Rod greets, turning his helm to face Soundwave as he approaches. His smile wide but wanting, but ultimately friendly and endearing. He’s smaller than Soundwave, so he has to look up when he greets him. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were on data recovery duty.”

“Half-shift,” Soundwave answers listlessly. “Why are you here?”

It’s not quite an open-ended question. It only has so many variations. ( _Why are you here alone? Why are you here now? Why are you here of all places?)_ It is open to interpretation nonetheless.

“Ah,” Hot Rod makes a wide gesture, but his digits don’t even graze Soundwave’s plating, pulling back at just the right time. “It’s nice, out here. Quiet. Less bots.”

“I thought you liked people,” Soundwave says.

Hot Rod shrugs listlessly. “I do,” he says. He pauses for a second, optics searching the horizon. He shrinks in on himself, almost imperceptible, but Soundwave catches it. “I just don’t like all the touching,” he admits after moment, though it sounds flat and out of place.

Soundwave considers for a moment, thinking of what he could say. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps, this is part of Hot Rod’s mystery. Maybe it truly is just a simple case of him not liking touch. But it doesn’t line up with the evidence and firsthand accounts, the way his friends fondly recall Hot Rod giving the best hugs and the casual touches that Soundwave has witnessed from half a battlefield away.

“Inconsistent,” Soundwave offers listlessly, moving to sit beside him.

Hot Rod raises an optical ridge even as he carefully scoots over. “’Inconsistent?’” he echoes.

“You seemed to enjoy being touched before we returned to Cybertron.”

“How would you know?” Hot Rod asks defensively. “Were you watching me?”

“No,” Soundwave says, though he was—just a little—“it’s just easy to see. And hear about. You have a reputation.”

“For being clingy?” Hot Rod asks, a bit dejectedly.

“Affection,” Soundwave corrects, without really thinking about it. “They called you affectionate.”

“Same thing,” Hot Rod says with the wave of his servo. It comes close to Soundwave’s face, as if Hot Rod doesn’t realize. “But, anyway, you must’ve heard wrong.”

“I don’t think I did,” Soundwave says. He’s not sure whether or not pressing is a good idea or a bad one, but he imagines he’ll find out. “I think you avoid touching people for some reason now. And I think you miss it.”

Hot Rod visibly tenses. “What about it?” he says defensively, then corrects himself. “I mean, if that was true, why would it matter?”

Soundwave doesn’t know why it does, other than wanting to see Hot Rod come out of his self-imposed exile. But maybe that’s enough.

“I want to see you happy,” Soundwave offers. When he says it, it is too much of a confession of something he’s not sure he’s ready to face yet.

Hot Rod snorts, “Yeah, right. We barely know each other.”

“Nonetheless.” Soundwave moves to rest his servo on Hot Rod’s shoulder. The mech doesn’t seem to notice. “I care about you.”

The second Soundwave’s servo comes in contact with Hot Rod’s shoulder joint, he pulls back as if burned. It certainly feels like it. He lets out a hiss. Hot Rod is looking at him again, optics wide and horrified.

“I’m so sorry—” Hot Rod says, frantically. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Soundwave says. “What _was_ that?”

Hot Rod pulls away, putting a good few meters between them. “That’s why I don’t touch people anymore. After I fell in—” Hot Rod stops, dejected. “After I fell in that sludge stuff, touching people became an issue. Perceptor’s the only one who knows—or he was.”

The explanation explains many of Hot Rod’s behaviors and his newly constructed bubble. It makes a frightening amount of sense, given his personality. Soundwave is sure the isolation will kill him sometime soon.

“Oh,” Soundwave says. “Is there anyway—”

“To get rid of it?” Hot Rod asks, smiling ruefully. “Percy’s trying to figure it out, but things aren’t looking good. Besides, he’s got his own problems.”

Soundwave nods in acknowledgement. That much was true. Perceptor hadn’t even gotten suitable optic replacements yet.

“I see,” Soundwave says.

The interaction lingers at the back of his mind for days after that and Soundwave knows why. He likes Hot Rod more than he should. Of course, this means leaving Hot Rod to misery is an upsetting thought. They’re friends and friends, well, they helps each other from what Soundwave understands.

“I think I have a solution,” Soundwave says, one day, weeks later.

Hot Rod, three meters away, leans back to rest on his elbows, “To?”

“Your problem,” Soundwave says.

Hot Rod snorts, “Yeah, right. If Perceptor couldn’t fix it, I don’t think you could.”

“I don’t mean to the toxin,” Soundwave says, though he wishes he did. “I mean to you not being touched.”

Hot Rod hums, “Oh?”

Soundwave stands, “Stay here.”

In the next moment, he’s sweeping down the halls. Cybertron doesn’t have much in way of fabric, but Soundwave had gotten a number of large fabrics after finding out about Hot Rod’s problem. It isn’t an ideal solution, not by any means, but it’s the most comfortable and offers the most flexibility.

When he returns with the large piece of fluffy fabric, he offers it to Hot Rod. “Wrap this around yourself,” Soundwave almost demands.

Hot Rod looks confused, but takes it nonetheless. Carefully, he begins to wrap it around his frame, running his servos over the softness and practically marveling in it.

“Cover as much plating as you can,” Soundwave says.

Hot Rod nods wordlessly. It takes a minute or two before Hot Rod is wrapped comfortably from helm to pede in the fabric, but Soundwave is unreasonably satisfied when he is. Soundwave sidles up to him in the next moment, wrapping his arms around where he thinks Hot Rod’s waist would be.

“It isn’t much of a solution,” Soundwave apologizes, “but hopefully it will be enough.”

Hot Rod is silent for a moment, before he speaks, “It’s great, Soundwave. Thank you.”


End file.
